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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Vintage Ashtrays & Vintage Bliss Tuesdays Linky Party #5

While visiting my parents for Thanksgiving this past weekend, I took a little trip in the basement with Mom to see if there were any thrifty goods that I had not yet carried away to my house. It's pretty picked over, but Mom and I came up with this collection of vintage ashtrays.

Neither one of my parents smoked when I was growing up, but my mom explains, "You had to have an ashtray to offer to your guests!" Boy how things have changed. I hardly even know anybody who smokes. And many people who do smoke must do so in the garage or on the porch. Not something you want to do in Ontario in winter, in my opinion.

What I love about these ashtrays, particularly this cheery vintage orange plastic ashtray, is that they speak of fun times - parties with friends over drinks and hors d'oeuvres, warm nights gathered around card games while the snow falls outside. I know my parents and their friends liked to party, because back in the seventies and eighties, the kids would come with. My sister and I would fall asleep on a pile of coats or curled up next to each other on a couch. None of this, "I'm tired and I want to go home...right now" stuff.

Granted you can have just as much fun hanging out with friends without poisoning your lungs. I recall one party my parents had at which almost everybody was smoking. My black lab went into a sneezing fit the likes of which I never saw before or since.

Anyhoo, this stylishly shaped white ashtray was made by patients at the psychiatric hospital where my parents worked. The hospital had a little shop where they sold turtle-shaped plant holders and the like.

What would you do with these ashtrays in lieu of using them for cigarettes?

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For some reason I enjoy browsing the ashtray section of my thrift store too. I use the ashtrays for sewing notions (pins, etc), and have just a few. My mom gave me a few really teeny tiny ashtrays with a "willow" pattern (probably from her mother!). I use them for tea bag holders when I make a single mug of tea ;) Wendy

My parents didn't smoke but ashtrays were still so commonplace everywhere including restaurants that they bring back lots of memories. Some of them are actually very cool. I think you will find some great uses for them. How how about candy dishes?

I love ash trays too, but my parents were never smokers and have long since got rid of theirs from the 60s and 70s. We had one of those round side tables with the swivel ash tray when I was growing up, I see them on eBay for megabucks! I still want one, even though it's completely impractical and we have no use for it!

You are so funny the way you pilfer your mom's whenever you're there. I can't beleive she has anything left! I love the ashtrays... I actually use them because I do chinese moxa (but yeah, no one does smoke these days!).

OH I jUST donated turquoise AND orange ashtrays because I couldn't even sell them! I never thought to keep them and do something ELSE with them...hunh I hope you share what you plan to do with them! Sorry it took so long get back here from Thrifter Share the last two weeks have been CRAZY! Thanks for linking up and showing me what I'm missing.

Hi! I'm Joann, a Toronto, Canada freelance writer and mother of two kids and two beagle-mix rescue pups. Inspiration is all around us, but how often do we miss it as we speed through our days crossing things off our lists? Grab a cup of tea and join me in exploring the art in everyday life, including diy, decor, books and lots of easy-to-make, family-friendly vegan food.